Emanuel Ungaro

Exuberance is paying off for Fausto Puglisi at home in Milan. His first runway show for his signature label was a moment we might remember as a turning point for young designers there. He's having a harder time getting the Emanuel Ungaro relaunch off the ground in Paris, though. There are a number of factors at work: too many similarities to his own line, a borderline garish color palette—but, most of all, it's that exuberance. Puglisi gets the house codes almost too well. More often than not, there was just far too much going on in a single look: patch pockets, stripes, polka dots, and ruffles? Enough already. Puglisi was better today when he was thinking along simpler lines, as in a densely knit yellow and black striped tank worn with leather pants that had a single sculpted ruffle down one leg. "For me," he said, "it's important to be not just a couture celebration but a real-life celebration." That's the right attitude: Design clothes not just for special occasions but for women's daily lives. We'll swipe the credit card for that. Unfortunately, a reliance on chiffon—an Ungaro essential that Puglisi hadn't explored until now—meant there weren't enough of the deluxe basics he was preaching about. Next time, he needs to find a middle ground between all the excess and those plain white T-shirts with "Paris" splayed across the back.